A federal judge blocks Elon Musk’s Doge access to the vital Payment System of the Treasury Department

CNN
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A federal judge, citing a risk of “irreparable damage,” temporarily restricted the access of Elon Musk’s government efficiency equipment to an essential payment system of the Treasury Department.

The order of the judge, issued on Saturday, temporarily stops access to a sensitive payment system that distributes the US tax statements, social security benefits, disability payments and salaries of federal employees.

District judge Paul Engelmayer ordered the destruction of any information unloaded from the payment system by any person to which access since January 20, citing “the risk that the new policy presents to disseminate sensitive and confidential information and confidential information and the greatest risk that the systems in question are more vulnerable than before to computer piracy. ”

A hearing was set on the subject for February 14.

The order of Engelmayer occurred in response to a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, and another 18 state general prosecutors against the Trump administration.

The demand alleges that the team led by Musk and formed by associated young people categorized as “special employees of the government” have received illegal access to the treasure system that was previously restricted to specific government employees.

The campaign of what the Trump administration calls the government efficiency department, or Doge for its acronym in English, aims to drastically reduce government costs, but has sought access to critical computer systems, including the Treasury Payment System, Treasury, A objection of others in the agencies, as CNN previously reported.

Doge’s actions have lit a tense political debate and an emergency judicial procedure on their access to the system and the possible interest of the administration to use it to deactivate payments at will.

“The conduct of Doge members presents a unique security risk for the states and residents of the states whose data is preserved,” says the demand.

The payment system offers services to more than 250 federal agencies and is the conduit for an extraordinary strip of critical individual payments. It is essential for US government operations and for the lives of millions of Americans.